Recap of a Crazy Week in the World of Golf

After winning the FedEx cup, I thought Justin Thomas was done for a while. Maybe he’d take a nice vacation, enjoy the winter in some place warm and sunny, and come back ready for next season. I, like most people, was very wrong with this assumption. Early Sunday morning on the east coast, Justin Thomas scored yet another victory in the 2017 calendar year, this time winning the inaugural CJ Cup at Nine Bridges (South Korea’s first PGA Tour event), marking the seventh PGA Tour victory of his young career. For such a new event, there was an impressive turnout, pulling big names such as JT, buddy Daniel Berger, Patrick Reed and even Jason Day. In the end, JT showed that he still was in mid-season form, defeating Marc Leishman on the second hole of a playoff by demonstrating his firepower with shots like this.

Now what does this mean for the world of golf? First, let’s start with Thomas himself. He came out of the gate swinging, opening with an impressive 63, courtesy of holes 12-18, which he played in eight-under par. However, rounds 2 and 3 were less than impressive in comparison, and Thomas found himself needing a birdie on the 72nd hole on Sunday to make it to a playoff. A five-wood to about 20 feet on the par-5 18th set up an easy two-putt for birdie, and the rest was history. What makes this victory more impressive? Since the Open Championship, Thomas has played 10 of the past 14 weeks, and while doing so, he managed to rack up a major championship, FedEx Cup title, POTY honors and three victories in two different countries. The endurance he showed during this span is incredible, and to accomplish what he did over this span is almost Tiger-esque. He even admitted that his tank was pretty much empty by Sunday, and to summon the strength he did, maintain his composure and close out another tournament shows that he gets the job done when it counts. In case you haven’t figured it out, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Justin Thomas next year.

Another big storyline of the week was Jason Day. Back injuries and family problems derailed much of his 2016-2017 season, and he plummeted from first to eighth in the world rankings. It was nice to see him finish a disappointing season on a high note, however. While he never was truly in contention, he still managed to post a T-11 finish. Day was shut out for victories this season, and hasn’t won a tournament since the 2016 Players Championship. Hopefully a high finish going into the offseason will get him trending in the right direction for 2018.

As I mentioned earlier, the CJ Cup was South Korea’s inaugural PGA Tour tournament. From what I saw of the week, I have nothing but praise for the event. The tournament did get a sizable pull of big names, which is very impressive for a brand new tournament on foreign soil. Much of this can be credited to the new rule put in place by the Tour to try and get players to play new events. Granted, the CJ Cup is, by no means, a big ticket event. It’s tough to tune into a tournament when the time difference is a whopping 13 hours, and tech blunders by the Golf Channel during the Leishman-Thomas playoff didn’t necessarily help either. However, despite all this, it was a very exciting ending with a very popular winner, and the tournament was played on a beautiful course. In terms of growing the game globally, I think this tournament did a fantastic job, and will continue to be a success for many years to come.

Not to be overshadowed, but another blast from the past secured another victory this week. Sergio García, looking to close out a whirlwind year, won the Valderrama Masters this week in his home country of Spain. What a year it has been for García. He won the US Masters early this year to finally become a major champion at the ripe age of 37. He also got hitched to Angela Hamann, and the couple just recently announced that they are going to be having a child in March. Now a victory at the tournament that he hosts is almost the icing on top of the cake, though he may not be done with 2017 yet. This victory moves him up to second in the Race to Dubai standings, behind Tommy Fleetwood by only about 800,000 points. Sergio may be a bit of a late bloomer, but he is certainly peaking at all the right times, and showing that even an old dog has a few tricks up his sleeve.

One last thing in the world of golf. In case you haven’t heard, a certain golfer by the name of Tiger Woods was officially cleared to resume complete game action on Tuesday. Much speculation has occurred about Tiger’s return to competitive golf, though he realistically won’t be back until at least the beginning of 2018. It will be interesting to see how this return goes, though one thing is for certain. If Woods wants to resume his winning ways, he’s going to have to come back better than ever to have any chance at competing with the Justin Thomas’s of the Tour today. If he’s anything less than 110% ready to compete, his reign as the best modern golfer might be coming to an end.

Overall, it was a really great week for golf. New faces continue to dominate, new tournament are on the rise and the game of golf is continuing to grow. While the modernization of golf as we know it is in full swing, old faces like Tiger and Sergio refuse to succumb to the new generation of golfers. One thing is for certain, if this week was anything like the tournaments to come, then we are in for a very exciting year in 2018.

Written by Paul Choma